Cuba to elect new, non-Castro president for first time in 60 years0:13

Cuba will elect a new president on Thursday, marking the end of an era, as 86-year-old Raul Castro hands over power to the Caribbean island's first non-Castro president in six decades.
Current Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, 57, is widely expected to be the successor, who will be picked by parliament.
His election will represent a takeover by younger leaders, replacing the bearded guerrillas led by Raul Castro's brother Fidel, who overthrew the corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1959 revolution.
A deepening economic crisis in Cuba's ally Venezuela has squeezed its finances at a time when US President Donald Trump has stepped up economic pressure on the island, tightening business and travel restrictions following a thaw under Barack Obama.
The private sector, which has been fuelled by a boom in tourism, with 4.5 million visitors recorded in 2017, already employs more than a third of the workforce.

April 17th 2018

8 months ago

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The succession on Miguel Diaz-Canel marks the end of the Castro’s six-decade grip on power. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

Miguel Diaz-Canel is the sole candidate to succeed Cuba’s President Raul Castro, officials announced on Wednesday on the eve of a vote in the National Assembly.

Mr Diaz-Canel, a 57-year-old Communist Party official and the country’s current first Vice President, is due to be confirmed on Thursday as the successor to Mr Castro, whose departure will end his family’s six-decade grip on power.

Raul Castro and Miguel Diaz-Canel at the National Assembly in Havana. Picture: APSource:AP

The announcement came after the National Assembly began a historic two-day meeting to elect a successor to the 86-year-old Mr Castro, and usher in a post-Castro era.

Mr Diaz-Canel has since last year been widely expected to take over from Mr Castro, who made it clear his deputy was his personal choice.

Raul Castro embraces Miguel Diaz-Canel after he is named as the candidate to succeed him as president. Picture AFPSource:AFP

At the two-day meeting, which began early on Wednesday, the 605-seat National Assembly is to vote in a new Council of State, which counts 31 members and whose head will automatically become president.

Although the session was initially planned for Thursday, officials decided earlier this week to extend it across two days “to facilitate the procedures during an event of such significance.” The session is closed to the press and no details have been given about the program.

Although the vote could take place on Wednesday, the new president’s name is not expected to be made public until Thursday, which is April 19 — a date heavy with symbolism.

It falls on the 57th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, when the CIA tried to overthrow the leader of the 1959 revolution, Fidel Castro, an episode Havana has long proclaimed as American imperialism’s first great defeat in Latin America.

Raul Castro has been in power since 2006, when he took over after illness sidelined Fidel.

Between them, the Castro brothers ruled Cuba for nearly 60 years, making the Caribbean island a key player in the Cold War and helping keep communism afloat despite the collapse of the Soviet Union.